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Fast Food Nation

Catherine Oliveira, Amiee Muentes
Tanisha Martin, Blanca Velez
Professor Amarekwa, English 096-Group E
Why the Fries taste Good“It’s big and it’s real, it aint bullshit” the statement made by John Richard Simplot during an interview about his simplots plant. Growing up on a small farm in Idaho he felt the need to venture out on his own, he moved away by the young age of fifteen and began to work at a potato warehouse. By time he reached the age sixteen he became a potato farmer, he began to work with his landlord sorting potatoes with an electric potato sorter that they both purchased, John was able to win the electric sorter on a coin toss against his landlord were he than began to open his own potato factory operating thirty warehouses in Oregon. In 1965 he met with a man named Ray Kroc one of the founders of McDonalds and sold him his frozen French fries. Today Simplot’s Company is one of the three leading competing distributors. “French Fries,” their unique taste does not stem from the type of potato that McDonalds buy, but by the technology that processes them, as well as, the restaurant equipment that fries them. The taste is determined by the cooking oil, which consists of, 7% cottonseed oil and 93%, Beef Tallow which contains more saturated beef fat per ounce than a McDonald’s hamburger. In 1990 McDonalds was ordered to switch to pure vegetable oil, presenting the company with an enormous challenge, how to make the fries taste like beef without cooling them in beef tallow? To solve that problem with a mysterious phrase “Natural Flavors” also known as “Artificial Flavors.” They are man made additives that gives food their flavors by blending scores of different chemicals in small amounts. The flavor industries consist of five chemical plants in New Jersey. The area produces two thirds of flavor additives sold in the United States. Flavor is the smell of gasses being released by chemicals that you’ve put in your mouth. The Food and Drug Administration...

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...don’t help either, as found by Gail Eisnitz, also cited in Reprt:Line Speed, Injuries Increase for Slaughterhouse Workers, “Slaughterhouse workers talk of a production system that moves to fast…despite numerous complaints to management—as well as countless injuries—the companies refuse to make changes because slowing the process would mean not making as much money.” As found in Eric Schlosser’s book FastFoodNation the underlying fact is that with power and money there comes damaged morals. The big business owners just don’t care!
Now that the secrets are out and the industry is “naked” to the public now, the people are not calling the industry “The Jungle of the 2000s”, an article put out by the Associated Press States. Martin Cotez as interviewed by the Associated Press says, “You know what I like to say to the newcomers? They don’t kill cows. They kill people.” This, a response to his own story description, just puts a whole new label on the industry; murderers! Sinclair’s book published so long ago still seems to have barely effected the industry of today. As discussed in FastFoodNation, Schlosser also speaks of the injury of workers throughout chapter 8, effectively titled “The Most Dangerous Job.” One example of the horrible working conditions also comes from FastFoodNation, Jesus “A soft spoken employee of DCS...

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“Kid Kustomers” is about the businesses using their advertisements to target children from as early as age 2 (Pg.520). It all began in the 1980’s because parents began to feel guilty for not being able to spend as much time with their children since they work (Pg.519). Businesses took this to their advantage and started targeting kids. It’s hard for these businesses to think of a 3 year old level, so they began children groups to discuss their favorite animal, superhero, etc. (Pg.521). Television and the internet are also huge contributors in posting advertisements. One year, Ronald McDonald asked all the kids to go to the McDonalds website and tell him a little about himself (Pg.523). They then passed the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act which does not allow children to do this without parental consent (Pg.523).
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